North Las Vegas gets grant to help families facing foreclosure

By Jeff Pope

Friday, March 6, 2009 | midnight

North Las Vegas learned this week that it will receive additional federal funds that the city will use to help families facing foreclosure.

The city will receive $677,704 from the Community Development Block Grant program to use for its Homeless Prevention program, which assists families that would otherwise end up living on the street find housing or remain in their homes, said Kenny Young, senior assistant to the city manager.

The block grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development are the first set of grants for Nevada through the recently enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Young, who oversees city housing and neighborhood services, said the city might be able to start helping families by late April at the earliest. The city finds families through non-profit or social service agencies and some who directly approached the city for help.

The grant is in addition to $8.6 million the city will receive under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program to purchase bank-owned homes.

North Las Vegas had 2,113 bank-owned homes as of Jan. 31 and three ZIP codes that are among the highest for foreclosures in the nation, Young said.

The 89031 ZIP code led the nation in foreclosure filings in 2007 with 741, according to RealtyTrac. Young said there are 666 bank-owned properties there now, followed by 428 properties in 89032 and 352 in 89081.

"We have to find an owner that we can give down payment assistance to. In some cases, we also have to rehab those properties," he said. "We're looking at helping close to 200 to 350 families in the first go-round."

Young said the city is working with the county, Las Vegas and Henderson to combine efforts to pursue more money in the second round of Neighborhood Stabilization funding.

Jeff Pope can be reached at 990-2688 or [email protected].